I quit my job in web development for the same reasons a few years ago and have been much happier for it. Good luck!
I've walked away from software development
91–100 of 237 posts
Re: I've walked away from software development
#92Stealing phrase (paraphrasing) from a recent HN comment...
TLDR: Two kinds of work are doing and justifying. Those of us used to doing are really bad at, and demotivated by, the justifying.
Sorry, I should have book marked it.
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Finally listening to Graeber's Utopia of Rules. It's kinda blowing my mind. Like a firestorm in my head.
Graeber's The Democracy Project has even more radical, useful explanations. His distinction between "rational" (following the rules) and "reasonable" (doing what's right, fair) gives voice to something that's been plaguing me for decades.
Graeber supplies more of the puzzle pieces for how capitalism (in the USA) came to mean corporatism, and how these paradigms necessitate the Kafka/Brazil (movie) style bureaucracies we all hate.
It's really an amazing time to be alive. I came of age reading Peter Drucker, Buckminister Fuller, Donald Norman, and many other humanists. (The conclusions of the proto-libertarian stuff never made sense to me. I always thought of myself as whatever the leftist version of libertarianism would be. Same complaints, different conclusions. I had no idea that makes me an anarchist. It took me reading Graeber to finally start understanding what Chomsky's been talking about.)
Looking back, I truly didn't understand how far out of the mainstream their notions were. The humanists made sense to me and I guess I assumed everyone was on the same page. Alas, I've always been an outsider in my own land.
With the rise of post-capitalism and renewed interest in direct democracy, empathy, participation and so forth, my world is finally starting to make some sense.
Re: I've walked away from software development
#93I think all of us 40+ folks are in the same place. When we first started we didn't mind the bullshit so much because we were too dumb to realize how much there was. Then we got older and, yeah, it's ridiculous, but we were pretty decent at surfing the bullshit waves so we still didn't mind so much. Now you're in your 40s and the real obligations of life have started piling up. You've gone from 7 hours of free time a…
When the thought leaders have a “hole in their life” because a cron job and sendmail SAAS shutdown, you know it’s bullshit all the way down:
Re: I've walked away from software development
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Oh, by the way, it's December, so we need you to watch that 45 minute security training video again so you don't accept USB flash drives from strangers in the parking lot. The ability to mute a tab and have it run in the background is at times a beautiful thing.
Unless you work at Amazon where the training pauses if the tab isn’t actively focused. I’m convinced that it’s a form of torture.
We have that too. A second computer works wonders here. Worse is the training I'm doing now which lets you run it in the background but makes you push a button every 30s to continue the training.
Re: I've walked away from software development
#95It's interesting that the OP on reddit is describing normal company politics. It exists at every company I've ever worked at, and will exist anywhere there is money, power, and status at stake in the decision making process. My suggestion is to find a company where you can accept and work within that company's dysfunction, and stay put as long as you have a positive career path there. Every company is dysfunctional i…
I think the hard part, at least in my case, with the "this is normal company politics" is that it's hard to gauge whether that's true or not until you get in the company. Once you're there it can be hard to tell too unless you're in a particular area or division or whatever -- part of the problem, lots of times, are vast differences in how different groups are treated or whatever, due to communication between and to different areas, biases, incompetence, whatever.
In my case my friends blew off what I was saying until I was leaving, and then for whatever reason when I was in the process started actually listening to what I had been telling them for the past several years. "Wait... what??? You mean they do X, Y, Z? WTF?" It didn't matter that mutual friends had left, that they had lost 1/3 of their employees in the past 3-4 years, that 90% of the people in my division had left, that they had surveys (buried in diversity reviews) showing that 50-60% of the remaining people were seriously thinking of leaving. The secret meetings, the lawsuits, you name it. It was always the same response from my friends: "This is normal company politics everywhere." But it wasn't.
What I wished is that I had been mentored more on how to leave to a different organization (I sort of left the field), with an explanation for why. But when you hear "this is the same politics everywhere" you kind of think "ok this is what it's like everywhere."
The thing is, sometimes it's not the same everywhere. There are good places to work and bad places to work, and places that are good for some people and bad for others.
If it is bad everywhere (cf. Musk's complaints about "MBA-ization" of America), then society needs to have a serious reflection on itself (maybe that's the signal in the noise of US politics lately?).
FWIW, my experience is consistent with your bit about "as long as you have a positive career path there". I think at some level that's what prompted me to leave -- I got the sense that the reasons why some people were favored and others in the institution were not was all about weird purely personal factors, like who goes to who's wedding etc. (Yes, I believe social factors are important, that it's important to be cordial and genuinely friendly and positive and empathetic... but there's a point where all of that normal "being a good person and colleague" doesn't cut it anymore, and might actually be a detriment).
Re: I've walked away from software development
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Oh, by the way, it's December, so we need you to watch that 45 minute security training video again so you don't accept USB flash drives from strangers in the parking lot. The ability to mute a tab and have it run in the background is at times a beautiful thing.
Unless you work at Amazon where the training pauses if the tab isn’t actively focused. I’m convinced that it’s a form of torture.
There is something to be said for employers that are less technologically organized and competent. A friend at a company that did this used a virtual machine to run the training.
Re: I've walked away from software development
#97In the middle of the rant on burnout, he says: > I'm sick of everyone being on Adderall. Is that really a thing? ie What proportion of software folks are using it?
Super common.
Re: I've walked away from software development
#98One way to get out of this rut is to go into sales. As a software engineer gone sales, hear me out:
1. You're valued more the older you get (Opposite of engineering) 2. Your job is to talk to customers and collaborate with your coworkers to get a deal done (No more internet explorer bugs) 3. You learn an awesome skill (sales) that helps you navigate through the bs politics of not only work but life.
If anyone is interested in my transition from engineering to sales, happy to chat! Email me at ju.lee@segment.com
Re: I've walked away from software development
#99I remember when I started coding 15 years ago, I was one of a tiny handful of people in my town who learned how to code. I got into coding because I enjoyed it. My dad advised me against it and said that I should be a lawyer instead. There weren't many jobs back then for programmers; especially in the town where I lived.
The only opportunities were web development for local businesses so it looked like a bad financial move at the time but I enjoyed it that much and not many people were interested in it back then.
But it feels like something went seriously wrong along the way. The industry seemed to have turned into some kind of giant ponzi scheme which attracted all kinds of crooks... People who don't give a shit about coding; it seems that these people managed to get themselves promoted into all the decision-making positions.
The industry is so rotten. Luckily, I managed to get into blockchain space which also has a lot of rotten parts but somehow I managed to secure an income from working on my own stuff so I don't have a boss anymore. Now I'm building a sane/intellectual community from the ground up and being extra careful about what kinds of people we allow in.
Re: I've walked away from software development
#100I think all of us 40+ folks are in the same place. When we first started we didn't mind the bullshit so much because we were too dumb to realize how much there was. Then we got older and, yeah, it's ridiculous, but we were pretty decent at surfing the bullshit waves so we still didn't mind so much. Now you're in your 40s and the real obligations of life have started piling up. You've gone from 7 hours of free time a…
I wanted to help train and mentor people. Went to work in state government as a developer at 47+. Could not be happier. I feel that the obligation of helping tax payers get their moneys' worth is "old school" internet. Being able to present government information the easiest and cleanest way possible on the net. Started doing web dev back around 96 and felt like the ethos have evolved into something I just couldn't ethically believe in anymore. Found a second life doing what I love in state government...oh and they treat me like a human being. Excellent insurance, more time off than I can use, and people (other developers) who believe in what they are building.